Thursday, September 12, 2013

"Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav" is it serving the purpose?

Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav or Ganapati festival is a public festival which is celebrated in different parts of India in honor of Ganapati (or Ganesh, a Hindu God). This festival is very popular in Maharashtra, celebrated in many homes privately as well as by various mandals publicly (mandals are public trusts who collect money and celebrate festivals like this). Public Ganesh festival or Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav as it's popularly known was started sometime in 1890s by one of great visionary and Indian freedom movement leader Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak, his intention was to unite people from diverse groups, enhance their social belonging and instill feeling of patriotism while celebrating the festival. His aim was also to promote dream of Indian independence and home rule. According to me celebrating public festival in this manure was a brilliant idea to achieve that goal, that time under British rule people were prevented from gathering in large numbers, so public celebration of this festival gave people and their leaders unique opportunity to gather together and share their ideas without inviting wrath of concerned authorities.

This was all fine during pre-independence era or even few decades after independence, festivals like this helped people to get together and interact with each other socially but we see very different picture altogether if we look at this festival today (along with many other festivals which are celebrated publicly). The way this festival is celebrated today publicly is totally different than the way it was started, public education or spreading awareness is hardly a motive today behind celebrating this festival. I know that things change with time and different generations look at things differently but this festival has undergone drastic changes, except few honorable exceptions most mandals celebrate this festival for the sake of celebrating it, their main aim is to celebrate it as lavishly as possible that too by using public donations, hardly there is any noble motive behind it, collected money is wasted on useless activities, use of loud speakers creates lot of noise pollution in that area creating discomfort to elderly people and young kids who are sensitive to loud noise, while collecting donations for this festivals many mandals forcibly extract money from many business owners and who oblige under pressure to avoid any unpleasant scenario, many mandaps (pavilions in which idol and decoration is installed) are erected in such a way that they interfere with traffic and create inconvenience to commuters, there is one mandal at each corner of street, so instead of uniting people this festival today is dividing people because every neighborhood wants their own mandal and there is fierce competition among them to collect as much donation as possible and have grand celebration. During Ganapati visarjan its altogether different story, on that day thousands of idols, big and small are immersed in lakes, ponds, wells, rivers and sea, many of these idols are made of plaster of paris and use synthetic colors, immersing so many idols in streams create lot of water pollution and put lot of stress on our environment. These all are very serious issues and we need to address them properly, many other festivals are also celebrated publicly, which also create more or less same issues and most importantly now a days they tend to divide people, create some tension rather than bringing them together, so the main purpose behind celebrating these type of festivals is lost, what we see today is just waste of money and resources in name of God.

Unfortunately any effort to reform anything related with most of these festivals is seen as direct interference in people's right to practice their religion, it hurts their religious sentiments and this feeling can create protests and even communal riots. Because of this, it is considered as very sensitive issue and any government rarely want to interfere in it, in spite of all these things some rules related with use of loud speakers, construction of mandals, etc. have been introduced, many organizations encourage people not to immerse their idols in river or lake. Actually not all rules and regulations are followed strictly but some of these things are showing some positive signs and helping to reduce impact of such festivals on people and environment.

Fights between two groups because of some trivial issue during these festivals is also very common, this raises a important question, whether public celebration of these festivals is uniting people or dividing them? Are these festivals giving some people one more opportunity to create communal tension or to display their strength? As I mentioned earlier in this post celebration of religious festivals publicly was very brilliant idea when it was introduced, it was need of that time, but the current state of affairs raises a very important question about all these festivals including this one which are celebrated publicly, do we still need it in its current form? Do we really need so many mandals? Can't we have just few limited mandals in each city and celebrate the festival without using loud speakers which actually play totally unrelated songs with full volume (rarely they play religious songs, mostly they play current hit songs from some Hindi or regional movies)? Can't we avoid all water and noise pollution just by taking few simple steps? Is it that difficult to change the way this and many other festivals are celebrated to take care of our environment and be considerate towards people living in that area? We also need to ask, in its current form is it the same festival which Lokamanya Tilak started? Is it serving the same purpose for which he started this festival? Many be answers to all these questions will force us to introspect and come up with some major reforms.

Last year I wrote a post about Ganesh visarjan, in this post I asked some questions about impact of this process on our environment. We need to ask similar questions about all these festivals and practices which put unnecessary stress on our environment and cause inconvenience to people, it doesn't matter from which religion they belong, we need to introduce some major reforms for all of them. Most of things related with this festival has changed, now a days money involved is huge, songs they play are from current movies, techniques used for decoration are latest, so why not to have a new eco-friendly way to celebrate the festival? What's wrong in it? Social interaction in friendly and healthy atmosphere is always a good thing, but, are these festivals providing that atmosphere? If not, why not? May be answers to all these questions will bring back that spirit of this and many other festivals which seems to be totally lost in all this glitter of lights and sound of loud music.